Robert Sietsema at Potlikker; Tejal Rao at Jezebel

September 12, 2012

Robert Sietsema says that the food at Potlikker has an improvised quality and that the dishes come out a bit inconsistent: “My biggest complaint is that there’s no actual potlikker on the menu, as the name of the place promises. Swabbed with a savory version of the Dutch pancake, and sided with plenty of bacon, it just might become your favorite breakfast, lunch, and dinner all rolled into one.”

Tejal Rao checks out Jezebel, a kosher restaurant in Soho. Both the kitchen and bar are dairy-free and under rabbinical supervision: “The food can be good at Jezebel, but more often it is sloppy…a greasy Cornish hen ($32) was served with the washed-out vegetables you push around hopelessly at a wedding banquet, wishing you were drunk enough to dance.”

Pete Wells awards two stars to Governor in Dumbo: “For better and sometimes for worse, Mr. McDonald treats familiarity as if it were an enemy to be conquered. What comes to the table may take a little decoding. What are these white noodles under a bright yellow dust? Celery root, shaved into ribbons wide as pappardelle and blanched just until they fold softly over themselves.”

Adam Platt pays a visit to Battersby, where he is pleasantly surprised. There are only 15 dishes on the menu and although the ingredients were often the same, most of the recipes were unique each time: “This kind of spontaneous, high-wire, seasonal cooking can tip easily into the realm of parody, especially in this haute-forager, locavore-obsessed era. But in their small, unpretentious room, surrounded by merry eaters from the neighborhood, Ogrodnek and Stern manage to make you feel like you’re a guest at a festive pop-up dining club or their own semi-private party.”

Steve Cuozzo really does not like Mihoko’s 21 Grams, a sushi-French fusion restaurant. He says the service is horrible and the food is inconsistent: “For every successful dish there was a correspondingly awful one. Cold corn velouté with cooked langoustine evoked summer bliss. Chawan mushi with snap peas, a strained fusion effort, registered as thick pea soup with barely perceptible custard.”

Jay Cheshes gives three stars out of five to Mile End Sandwich: “And even a Buffalo expat would fall for Mile End’s Roast Beef on Weck–a sandwich that’s like religion in western New York–served here with shaved Wagyu, showered in fresh horseradish, on a properly salt-crusted caraway roll.”

Ryan Sutton has a $300 meal at Gwynnett St.: “I recommend the bean curd (made without bean curd). Hilbert takes pureed pistachio and jiggles it up with gellan gum and kuzu starch. The result is a nutty, creamy, elegant “tofu.”

Michael Kaminer files in a report on Siro’s, where there is a lackluster menu with hefty price tags: “Not every restaurant exists to reinvent the wheel. There are customers who crave familiarity, and God bless places like Siro’s for coddling them. But there’s no excuse for lazily executed food when you’re charging top-shelf Manhattan prices.”